


Bring On the Wonder

by rowofstars



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Post-Episode: s04e13 Journey's End, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-23
Updated: 2009-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-19 06:09:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4735373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rowofstars/pseuds/rowofstars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for an old DW challenge comm where the prompt was that the fic had to include: A snatch of song lyrics, an unusual color, the name of a band, a Shakespearean character, an item usually found in a child's room, and a quote from page 57 of the book closest to the author at the time of writing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bring On the Wonder

**Author's Note:**

> t yet. :) Beta'd by [](http://anepidemic.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://anepidemic.livejournal.com/)**anepidemic**.  
>  The title is from a song of the same name by Susan Enan.

Five and half hours later, Rose Tyler wipes the streaks of mascara from her face, and throws the wall one last longing look. She feels like she’s turning her back on a promise as she exits the building, stepping out into the cool evening air of a London that isn’t hers. Two universes were saved today, but there will be no victory hugs, no chips. He burns up a sun to say goodbye, but at the end of the day her hand is still empty.

For the first month, she doesn’t look up at the stars. On this side they’re just a reminder of where’s she’s been and what she’s lost. Eventually, she moves out of the Tyler mansion and into a flat in the city where the sky is filled with the hum of zeppelins and the glow of traffic lights. Most of the constellations are the same anyway, according to Mickey, and that just makes it hurt more.

She makes few friends, keeping her associations casual and smiling at the things people expect her to. A distance solidifies between her and this world, as if this is just a layover on the way to her final destination. There’s a duffel bag in her closet, with a change of clothes and a spare pair of trainers, just in case.

Throwing herself into her work, the days pass by, marked by disappointments and tragedies. The first time she runs her own mission a stupid mistake gets a new recruit killed. His name was Ben, and really, she should have seen it coming because the Doctor taught her better than this. Some Defender of the Earth she’s turning out to be.

Afterward, they all say the right things, tell her it’s not her fault and send her home to rest. She sits in the shower until the water turns cold. Like Lady MacBeth, the blood just won’t wash off her hands. She’s learning the hard way that it doesn’t matter how much you pay the ferryman, you don’t get your change back.

Exactly three years to the day, the dimension cannon is completed, and though she knows it’s impossible, she becomes determined to find him and give him whatever forever she has, just to spite the universe. Before the first flip of the switch, when she does finally look up, the stars are disappearing.

She knows then that it’s all wrong.

 

 

* * *

 

 

It takes fifty seven attempts with the cannon before she finally lands in the middle of what was once a comfortable suburban street. Her steps are cautious as she makes her way down the road past abandoned cars and houses. She spies a shoe lying near the curb, blackened on the side and still smoldering. Whatever has happened here seems to be over, when she sees a familiar blue box.

Even at this distance she knows it’s him before he even turns around. She smiles true for the first time in years, and runs like her life depends on it.

 

 

* * *

 

 

It’s a classic story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy’s half-human biological metacrisis gets girl. If the boy was a nine hundred year old Time Lord and the girl was a nineteen year old human.

They fall into bed faster than they probably should, becoming lovers again before their souls have had a chance to catch up. She’s used to the room feeling smaller, filled to overflowing with his endless words, but the silence that follows is oddly comfortable. She sleeps with a leg draped over the sharp corner of his hip, and for once there are no nightmares, on either side of the bed. When she wakes up the next morning, he’s staring at her, hair askew and it’s the first time she tells him she loves him. It bursts out of her before she has time to think, and it almost surprises her how easily the words come.

Her hand isn’t empty anymore, hasn’t been for months, but the glide of his fingers through hers is still the strangest sensation. As if at any moment this tenuous dream might fade away, she holds on, tighter than before. If he notices, he doesn’t say anything, just smiles that patented maniacal grin and pulls her on to the next adventure. It might be an experience as mundane as going to the market, but he still does it with enough enthusiasm for six people.

When he brings up growing another Tardis, she’s stunned and a little afraid of what it might mean, if this life isn’t enough to be happy. Still, it isn’t long until she begins to feel the itch in spite of her trepidation. The lure of the stars is undeniable and it feels almost like they’ve been teasing her this whole time. She’s sorry she didn’t pay more attention to them earlier, when there was time to gaze and dream about the wonder of it all, before it became all about saving the universe.

 

 

* * *

 

 

He insists on doing the test runs by himself, and each time she paces nervously, counting silently, hoping she never reaches five and a half hours again. The first time she sees the console room, it looks the same as she remembers, though he swears there are a multitude of improvements. There’s a coat rack by the door, seat belts, and the bicycle pump has been replaced by a large crank with a handle he declares is persimmon, not orange. She’s curious if he winds it up enough if the console will pop open like a jack-in-the-box.

It takes a few minutes to get the hang of the new console and once he accidentally pushes a button that blasts what she can only describe as a Glenn Miller dance mix throughout the whole Tardis. Her eyebrows shoot to her hair line almost as fast as his fingers to the volume control, but she doesn’t ask. A few moments later they are floating in the vortex, a homecoming of sorts. It’s too quiet but she still has to pull out the tongue-between-her-teeth grin before he relents and turns the music back on. It’s not a confession really, when she hears him cursing Jive Bunny and the Mixmasters under his breath. She teases him about it anyway, and this time he doesn’t hide the way his eyes follow the sway of her hips.

The landing is as smooth as ever, with the Doctor muttering something about getting their money back for the seat belts as they pick themselves up off the floor. Then Rose finds herself standing at a door she never thought she would see again with a man who is even more impossible than before. She reaches out, pressing her hand against the wood, feeling the thrum of energy under her palm.

“Are you sure?” he asks, fingers sliding through hers.

She can feel the nervousness and tension in his body. He’s afraid she will say no, that this isn’t want she wants their life together to be. The truth is she can’t imagine it any other way. So she just smiles and squeezes his hand, pushing the door open into the wonderful unknown.


End file.
